Contents

Appearance

The stem of the flowering tree.

The clone, which naturally bears strong resemblance to Hashirama, grows out of the side of a giant flowering tree, with eight hands suspended around it. The stem bears a single flower, upon which the Demonic Statue formerly rested while not in use. The tree also has spike-like branches, which jut out all along its stem, and a gigantic network of roots extending into a massive flooded cavern. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, the tree's stem had grown significantly longer than it was in Madara's final days.[3]

Role

The developing White Zetsu attached to the tree.

When Madara and Hashirama fought at the Valley of the End, the former was believed to have died. In reality, Madara used the battle to collect a piece of Hashirama's flesh and later negated his own death through the use of Izanagi.[1] After awakening the Rinnegan, Madara used the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path as a medium to cultivate Hashirama's cells, resulting in the creation of an enormous flowering tree containing a clone of Hashirama.[2] To continue living beyond his natural lifespan, Madara attached himself to the tree using three tendrils that extended from its stem, allowing him to continuously receive the Demonic Statue's chakra.[4] A number of developing White Zetsu appeared on the tree's branches, leading Madara to believe they had been created as an unforeseen result of his experiments, when in actuality they had secretly been removed from inside the statue by Black Zetsu.[1] As a result, the White Zetsu's DNA nearly matched Hashirama's own, and they could use a weaker version of his Wood Releasekekkei genkai.[5]

When a mortally wounded Obito Uchiha arrived in an underground tunnel connected to Mountains' Graveyard, Madara had the White Zetsu retrieve him and attached Hashirama's artificial body to his damaged right half, allowing him to survive his injuries.[4] Obito was thus granted a body similar to a White Zetsu's, allowing him to survive without food or water, utilize Hashirama's Wood Release, and heal without using hand seals. After passing on his knowledge and plan to Obito, Madara caused black receivers formed out of his will to emerge from Hashirama's clone and then detached himself from the tree, resulting in his death.[6] By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, 100,000 White Zetsu had fully developed.[7] After Kabuto Yakushi captured Yamato and used him to further improve the White Zetsu, he suspended him in the tree's stem beneath Hashirama's clone.[8]

Trivia

In the manga, the flowering tree is entirely white in colour, whereas in the anime, the tree itself is brown and the flower on top is purple. In Naruto: Colour Edition, the tree is initially depicted with the anime's colour scheme in volume 54, but later changed to use the manga's in volume 63.

Overall, the tree and flower resemble the golden lotus flower with a much longer, thinner stem.